When to put London flat on market for January move?

[Moneywon]

Want to move ideally end January. 2 bed zone 1/2 flat (£550k-ish valuation). When should we put on market for this? Then moving overseas so guess would rather sell earlier than later.

Earlier rather than later. I’d personally just list now personally. You want to do it before summer holidays anyway and people are away etc

For family reasons would prefer to do it as late as possible (difficult to get place ready for viewings until at least August). Should have mentioned that!

If you want to move by January, I’d do it before August. At the end of July and August, people are often away and things wind down towards the end of the year. You really want it to be under offer by August if you want to complete by the end of the year.

As late as possible? That somewhat contradicts your original post where you said about doing it sooner rather than later.

Typical time for conveyancing process is 16 weeks. So that would mean you would need to accept an offer by the end of September to aim for January completion. Then it depends how long it takes you to find a buyer. I’d probably aim to have it on the market July at the latest.

Is your flat leasehold? You’re looking at 4 months very best case for something to go through from offer to completion. Do you have to sell to move?
Flats in London aren’t selling as well as houses in London , although not sure where you’re based.

The best time to go on the market was spring. If you act now - as in now - you can grasp that. The worst time to come on the market is summer holidays. Then a narrow window in September but frankly once the cold and dark sets in much more tough and Christmas run up impossible. You will get people coming on to say that they sold their house on Christmas Eve, but those are exceptions not the rule

Good friend put an offer end at the end of August last year. Moved in 5 weeks ago. Things are taking a long time for some at the moment.

In practice you probably have very little choice, you don’t know how long it will take to sell or who else will be in the chain or what might come up. Our current house took 11 months to move from the point our offer was accepted due to an unexpected legal issue up the chain. If you want to sell you’ve just got to get it on and hope for the best.

Thanks all. Yes it is contradictory, don't want it on the market yet but do want to move in January. Sounds like that's wishful thinking on one part at least....

So if sooner is better should we list like in the next few weeks? What's the best window in September? Is August a no-go?

List it now

I’m not an expert at all but what I’ve learnt is It so out of your control as to when it will sell & how long it all will take, having a deadline must be a nightmare 🙈 have a look at this thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/5293602-the-all-new-buyerssellers-waiting-room-8-lies-lies-and-the-stamp-duty-deadline

good luck!

Start now and be prepared to rent for a few months if necessary?

Agree with the comments above you need to market ASAP. I am not in the London market but live in the northern Home Counties - I dithered about putting the house on the market in September last year - the window closed at the end of October and basically nothing coming onto the market until mid-January. I put my house on the market in February - sold quite quickly but if I am l lucky I will complete in July. There seems to be quite narrow selling bands and as someone previously stated its at least 16 weeks to complete.

Ok thanks all! Really helpful. Issue is short term rentals around London are v expensive/ in thin supply, but (now!!) appreciate it's worth going down this path anyway

If you get a buyer you have some choices. You are still at the mercy of the sale process and your buyers needs but you can at least have conversations around January or rentals, even a discount for waiting. But without a buyer, you'll never sell.

I know someone who had a protracted probate purchase in London and he moved into air b and bs. 3 of them by the time the sale actually completed!

If you can avoid end of July to the very beginning of September which is holiday season. The market is slow for flats but if you put it in at a competitive price and have good photos you should get feet through the door first weekend. You just don’t want it to sit around bc then you end up with cheeky offers. If I could go back in time I would put it on at the lowest price I would accept, rather than what I was hoping for

We put our flat on the market in the last week of August. Sold 4 weeks later and were ready to exchange in Jan.

The people looking at buying flats are still looking in the summer. Ours was a small 2 bed in zone 2. It took 4 weeks - rubbish offers to begin with and then 3 asking price in the same week. Be ready to deal with the sale. We had all of our paperwork to hand. The only tricky point was when it got to fire risk assessments - something my neighbour had issues with as well- as legislation has changed (and obligations if you’re a share of freehold). The request for a fire risk assessment came late in the day and did delay the sale.

We are in a short term rental. Quite a few air BnBs will offer month long stays. A lot of our furniture is in storage.